


the sun is also a star (alone in the night)

by Anonymous



Category: Shadow and Bone (TV), The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Choking, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/M, I don't go here, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rape/Non-con Elements, i just think they're hot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 17:28:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30059010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: He will always find her.And when he does, the Darkling will have his sun summoner, willing or not.
Relationships: The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova/Alina Starkov
Comments: 10
Kudos: 84
Collections: Anonymous





	the sun is also a star (alone in the night)

* * *

Alina and Mal have sequestered themselves away for the night in some dingy little inn. Barely more than six rooms. But it’s safe here, warm, comforting almost. As though they have stepped into another world where the weight of expectations and her harsh reality are hidden. Away from danger.

Away from _him_.

It is blissfully quiet.

Actually, now that Alina thinks about it – it’s too quiet.

Earlier, when Mal had left to find something to eat, there had been the creak of floorboards as people trudged up and down the stairs. The raucous laughter of drunk men from the bar below. Even the occasional conversation that carried up from the street as people passed.

Now, her every breath sounds too loud in the small space.

Something feels wrong.

There’s a stillness to the world underneath everything, unnatural and foreboding. A darkness creeping into the space she has briefly carved out for herself in the world.

Roughly hewn logs crackle and split in the fireplace and Alina desperately wishes that the fire would silence itself so she can just _listen_. For what, she isn’t quite sure.

_There_.

The tones of an argument somewhere outside.

Footsteps on the stairs.

Everything is fine.

She’s paranoid.

The door swings open and she looks towards it, expecting Mal, expecting anyone but _him_.

Everything is not fine.

“What’s this?” The Darkling murmurs. “A little star, fallen from grace? All alone in the night.”

His voice is a cruel whisper that curls around her like the darkness he brings.

Alina is frozen in fear. Blackness creeps into her vision and spots of light dance faintly before her.

It takes a moment to realise that this is not their powers at play. She hasn’t taken a breath since he stepped into the room.

He closes the door behind him. Locks it.

The gentle click echoes in the room. Alina would perhaps be amused, some other time, that such a simple, everyday sound heralds her ruin.

She sucks in a breath. Unsteady. Unsubtle. Her vision clears enough for her to properly take him in.

Cool, refined, beautiful – as always.

He stalks towards her like a predator advancing on its prey. He pauses mere feet away from where she is rooted to the spot, her bare toes curling against the hardwood floor.

Her mind screams at her to _move_ , to do _anything_ that might mean escape.

She cannot move.

A black snake lies before her, poised to strike should her fear win out.

Alina knows it is dangerous to look a predator in the eye. And yet. He is alluring in all the right ways. A beautiful hunter who has so easily captured her because she will always be _weak_ for him.

She meets his piercing gaze.

Finally, she summons the courage to speak. “How did you find me?”

“Easily.”

She flinches at this knowledge. She thought she had been so careful to hide away from him. Away from all those who would do his bidding and search unto the ends of the world for her. Not careful enough, it seems.

He gives a little hum, folding his hands behind his back and leans into her. He's so close she can make out the tiny streaks of steel blue in his grey eyes. “We’re connected, Alina,” he says, “I’ll always find you.”

“What do you mean?” Alina questions. Will she never be free of this man? This _monster_?

“Oh, Alina,” he whispers, raising a gloved hand to cup her cheek. She expects the leather to be cold against her skin, but it is warm and somehow that feels all the more cruel.

“You’re mine,” he insists, “there’s no hiding from me, _moya solnishka_.”

She cannot contain her little gasp at his endearment. Wants to shove him away. Manages to raise her hands to press against his chest. Cannot find the strength to distance herself, even as he leans in.

His lips meet hers, tentative. Only for a moment. Then they are claiming.

Alina whimpers into the kiss, as he pours his longing, his disappointment, his desire, into her mouth. He nips at her lips, stinging and harsh, soothes it with a swipe of his tongue. Slips it into her mouth to twine with her own. It is deliciously cruel, this seduction. He has ruined her for all others with his kiss alone.

Both his hands slide into her unbound hair and he tilts her head to deepen the kiss. Alina loses herself to the passion of his embrace, hands gripping at the front of his kefta, lips meeting his over and over.

His lips begin to trail a path down her neck, and she moans at every little love bite he sucks into her soft skin. Each one a tiny declaration – _you are mine_.

She feels powerful; this man – who would give her the world with one hand and take it away with the other – reduced to worshipping her, craving her. He could have anything and yet it is _her_ body his hands now roam across. _Her_ neck subject to his blissful torture.

Her hands find their way into his silken hair. She pulls at it, just a little, as he sucks a bruise over her pulse point. He groans.

The noise sends a delicious shiver down her spine. A heat pools low in her belly and she can’t help rubbing her thighs together to ease the ache that has settled between them. Wishes he would soothe it for her.

A leather clad hand has managed to work its way underneath her upper layers, hesitantly stroking the bare skin of her stomach. Slowly, it moves along her waist to rest on the small of her back, pulling her ever closer to him. The sensation is enough to bring Alina back down from whatever high she’s been riding for the past few minutes.

She tries to pull away; pushes at his wrist, his arms, his chest. How could she have allowed this to happen? How could she have allowed herself to be _seduced_.

“Stop,” and it’s too loud in the silence of the room. “This is wrong.” The word feels unpleasant in her mouth, as though _wrong_ is not what she means to say at all. For it is right, being with him, too right.

Reluctantly, the Darkling pulls his hand from beneath her clothes, leaves the other in the tangle of her hair, detaches his mouth from her neck with a parting nip of his teeth. Shifts back just enough to meet her panicked eyes.

“Oh?” A raised eyebrow accompanies his overly scandalised tone.

Does he even care what he’s doing to her? What he’s _done_?

She thinks about his evil deeds, his beautiful lies, cannot help but wonder what it might be like to have him touch her anyway. To have this man – this evil creature – give her something no other man could ever. To let him take, if he so desires.

She moves to step away from him, realises that his grip on her hair won’t allow it, realises she’s shaking. “You…you’re a monster,” she spits out.

His answering grin is wicked. “Yes, I am, darling.”

His hand moves to stroke a stray hair from her cheek, to gently tuck it behind her ear before gripping her throat tight. “Your monster.”

And then his lips are back on hers, furious and demanding.

She doesn’t want this. To give in to his attentions would disappoint so many – but _oh,_ how she wishes she could disappoint, if only for a moment.

Nobody would need to know. It would be their little secret.

Oh, how she wants this. Wants him.

She kisses him back and it is _glorious_.

Yet she cannot let this man consume her. No matter how much she longs for it. Once more, Alina pulls away. Determined not to let this go any further.

“No.” This time she means it. “Stop it, please.”

She manages to wrench herself out of his grasp. Unthinkingly, she moves closer to the bed in the corner of the room. He’s trapped her now and Alina doesn’t even know it yet.

“And what if I don’t want to stop?” The Darkling asks, following her.

Cold fear blooms in her stomach. Alina feels sick at the thought that he might continue to force himself on her. She swallows. Speaks. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“I might.” His voice is velvet soft in the low light of the room and she reads his true answer in the tiniest tilt of his head – _I would_.

“Mal is coming back soon,” she says. Perhaps the threat of someone joining them will put an end to this. Not that the Darkling has ever found Mal particularly threatening.

Rage flashes across his face at the mention of Mal, so fast she almost misses the twitch of his left eye, the flair of his nostrils. She blinks and his face is smoothed. Alina wonders if perhaps she imagined the reaction but the sound of his leather gloves creaking as his fists clench tells her she did not.

Too late, Alina realises, it was the wrong thing to say.

She wants to cry at his next words, venom from the snake that has finally struck.

“No, he isn’t.”

Alina thinks back to the scuffle she heard on the street earlier, thinks she should have been more aware of her surroundings. Knows she’s been a fool.

She storms towards the Darkling – another one of her many mistakes tonight – ready for a fight she’s not sure how to win. “What did you do to him?” Alina demands.

“Nothing he doesn’t deserve,” the Darkling replies, scowl fixed on his beautiful face – and it is beautiful, Alina cannot deny it, despite all his faults. Perhaps it is shallow of her to think so – but so many beautiful things are cruel, for it is in their nature to be deadly. And there is no denying his nature.

Darkness creeps in from every corner of the room, slithering towards them, indolent yet sinister all the same, summoned by a master it must obey. Alina wishes now that she could banish it all, knows that perhaps some deeds are better left to be done in the dark.

He leans towards her, gaze sweeping head to toe and it’s heavy with something that might be lust – Alina isn’t so well versed in such things that she would pretend to know. His tongue slips out to wet his lips and Alina wonders whether he will kiss her again.

“It’s just us now,” he whispers.

The darkness shivers.


End file.
